spelling

I always thought that the letter A was red, B was green, C was golden yellow... and so on, to Z which was black. I haven't the slightest idea where I got that (seeing how words are printed all in black in books) but it just seemed logical. When someone tried to show me how to spell my name using a blue crayon, I yelled "That's not how you make a A!"

Similer deal with numbers, whose colours mixed when you added them. Oddly enough, I still think of colour in this way.

Ana Byrd

You know that thing you use to carry load of stuff around the garden and outside? It has one wheel. Yeah, a wheelbarrow. Well until I was about 14 I thought it was called a wheelbarrel because you would put a barrel in the metal part and wheel it away!

Anon

I'm not sure if this is quite in the right category, but before I learned cursive handwriting, I used to scribble on pages and pages of paper, making sure to put lots of loops in. I had to be ready for the third grade, and I wanted to be ahead of everyone else.

Hollywood

When I was a kid learning how to read and write, I thought "K-N-E-W" was how you spelled the boat("CANOE"). Hey, if the "K" wasn't silent....

Ken

When I was in middle school I had to write a paper for English. I remember my mom proof read it and looked at me confused and asked me to clarify by the phrase "I ran next store to borrow bread". I guess each time people would say "next door" I heard "next store". I remember arguing with her about it because I knew I was RIGHT!
It was a harsh reality that day!

Anon

Cursive didn't have anything to do with the normal alphabet. You just started with something that looked like a letter and scribbled a little.

Kal

I believed that "hamster" was spelled "hampster". I didn't believe Mum, even when she showed me the correct spelling in the dictionary. I assumed the dictionary was wrong.
This is from the same child who could spell "chameleon" at age 5. Most of the kids I knew didn't know what a chameleon was.

Rachel

My sister was learning the alphabet, which was pretty funny in itself, she'd go "A G K R Y V W, S T..." and then, somewhere in the middle of the mess, she'd scream "Elmo!" (lmno) It was SO funny!!!

Noah Wong

I thought that no matter how you arranged any letters, it would always make a word. So 1 day when my teacher was asking for spelling words to put on a test, i Suggested ngfzztplk or something like that and everybody was like huh?

ediop

when I was learning my ABC's...you know? the song...I always thought it went " L, N, O, P". because that is how it sounded. you imagine my confusion when I learned to spell my name....Amanda M.

too busy singing a pretty song

For the longest time, I thought the word "thorough" was just poeple spelling "through" incorrectly. I don't even know when I finally figured it out.

Shanna

I was raised in Florida, but my mom is from new england and they always drop "R's" and add them in different places when speaking. Like car is pronounced just "ca". Well, until I was 9 or so I thought that "idea" was actually "idear" with an "R" on the end. When my friend pointed out the truth I was so embarassed. My teachers must have thought I was a complete idiot. It was totally my mothers fault.

Anon

After I learned the letters of the alphabet, I really wanted to know how you SPELL each letter. Some seemed obvious like bee, kay, dee, em, but I was very curious about some others like H, Q, X, etc. I remember trying to find out all through kindergarden and getting frustrated with no answers, because adults never understood my question. I'm not sure how long it was before I understood that the letters weren't words on their own.

Sara

My husbands family went out to eat as a family when he was young to "Chilies." Well if you look at their sign the "l" kind of curls into the first "i" and makes it look like a "J". So my husbands siblings convinced him that Chilies was really Chijies, pronounced Chejees. He called it Chejees until he was 18, but now the whole family calls it that just to make fun of him... guilty as charged!

Kiersten

I used to think "Zed" and "Zee" were two different letters.

Anon

One of my friends used to believe that the letter "M" could have as many lines as she wanted so she would do a letter M so it looked bit like MMMMM.

Anon

When I was about 4, my friend and I thought that writing in cursive was just writing a letter and then putting a big squiggle behind it, and then putting the next letter with a big squiggle, etc..
i.e.
"car" in our cursive would be
C~~~ a~~~~ r~~~~~
We didn't figure out what cursive actually was until 3 years later...ooops

Kels

I thought penis was spelled “Penus”, Like “Venus” but with a P.

Anon

When I was little I told my parents that I knew how to spell the word light. When they asked me how I told them it was "O-N-O-F-F". They were mystified until they realized that I had been reading the letters printed on the lightswitch!

Amandajulie

Until second grade I thought that the word recipe was pronounced "re-sipe". I had heard people say "reh-su-pe" but I thought that was a different word that meant exactly the same thing. I wondered why nobody ever used "re-sipe" when speaking.

Chris C.